A review by spookshow
They Feed by Jason Parent
3.0
You can find this review and all of my others over at www.readbookrepeat.wordpress.com
I received a copy of this book from the publisher, BooksGoSocial, and the author via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
This book follows a few different POVs. The most prominent is Tyler, a man recently released from prison after a six year stint, he was put away because he was found guilty of murdering a young man in Glaveston State Park. Though the wounds were extensive and Tyler only shot the gun that ended the man's life, he was found guilty of not only murdering the poor man, but also the disappearances of several other people across the years. The city needed a scape goat, and Tyler was their chosen one. In the present day we follow a few different people at the state park on the same day and night. All of them are thrown into a whirlwind of turmoil when they start getting attacked by strange black blobs with razor shard spines and teeth. No one knows exactly what the creatures are, besides the fact that they resemble giant leeches, and no one knows where they came from. It's a race against the clock as they try and work together to all get out of it alive, but will they succeed?
This story was very fast paced and was go, go, go pretty much from the start. It jumps point of view ever now and again, sometimes showing us characters that are completely away from each other, other times, showing us characters POVs when they're all in the same room. This style gives us a unique look into the different ways that all the characters perceive the situation they're in, as well as into their thoughts and feelings about the situation, as well as each other.
The creatures were interesting, seeing as they are basically giant, mutant, monster leeches, there is definitely some ick factor involved. As for me personally, normal leeches creep me out, as I'm sure they do most everyone else. So having giant ones with teeth and a bloodlust that seemingly can't be sated adds brings the shudder inducing, creepiness that all good horror stories can benefit from.
I would definitely class this as a horror story. There is swearing, gore, violence, hate, revenge, and redemption involved, it's a gritty telling of a young man who feels like the world has finally given up on him, as he tries to come to terms with the guilt that he feels about basically his whole life. Enter Dakota, the little sister to the guy that Tyler was convicted of killing, and we have a whole other dimension to the story. We get to see if from her view which I really enjoyed. She's gone off the rails since her big brother was taken from her, and the only thing she's been able to focus on the past six years is revenge. She wants to make her brother's killer pay for what he did, for everything that happened because he took her brother from her, he took her protector away and now her life has gone down one massive fucked up slope of anger, hurt, rage and despair. She blames Tyler for all of this. But when she is faced with the possibility that he wasn't responsible for what happened, he whole life is turned on her axis as everything she thought she knew could be a lie.
I enjoyed the characters. We had got to have a look into a view different kinds of people, the rage filled little sister, the man responsible for her downward spiral of life after killing her brother, the frat boys who just want to party and chase tail, the married couple where the love seems one sided these days, and the park ranger who is just going about his job and wants to help people. I found the characters well rounded and each of them was necessary, there was no character added just as extra padding to the cast list, so to speak.
One thing that did irk me a little with this story was the constant dropping of comparisons in the writing. They felt forced and as though they were added to bolster the word count, which I honestly don't believe is true, that's just how it felt to me. Each time I came across an unnecessary comparison sentence, it kind of jolted me out of the story a bit. I don't know why they irritated me so much, I honestly believe it was just that they seemed unnecessary to me. One example is something along the lines of "Mark is splattered with blood, the blotches remind him of those arsehole painters who get paid millions for just throwing paint on a canvas" that is not a direct quote as I can't remember it exactly, and I know it'll take me ages to find it in the book again. But this is just an example of the kind of comparisons. There were a lot of them. I don't mind the author dropping them in order to give the reader a good idea on how the character was feeling, but I just felt that there were too many pushed into the story, and that they felt forced, as I said earlier.
All in all, this was a good story, I did enjoy it and it was fast paced. I didn't see the revelation coming near the end and I thought it was brilliant, and it actually made me go "Oh wow. Okay." I'd still like to know where the hell those creatures came from, but maybe it's more unsettling NOT knowing.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher, BooksGoSocial, and the author via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
This book follows a few different POVs. The most prominent is Tyler, a man recently released from prison after a six year stint, he was put away because he was found guilty of murdering a young man in Glaveston State Park. Though the wounds were extensive and Tyler only shot the gun that ended the man's life, he was found guilty of not only murdering the poor man, but also the disappearances of several other people across the years. The city needed a scape goat, and Tyler was their chosen one. In the present day we follow a few different people at the state park on the same day and night. All of them are thrown into a whirlwind of turmoil when they start getting attacked by strange black blobs with razor shard spines and teeth. No one knows exactly what the creatures are, besides the fact that they resemble giant leeches, and no one knows where they came from. It's a race against the clock as they try and work together to all get out of it alive, but will they succeed?
This story was very fast paced and was go, go, go pretty much from the start. It jumps point of view ever now and again, sometimes showing us characters that are completely away from each other, other times, showing us characters POVs when they're all in the same room. This style gives us a unique look into the different ways that all the characters perceive the situation they're in, as well as into their thoughts and feelings about the situation, as well as each other.
The creatures were interesting, seeing as they are basically giant, mutant, monster leeches, there is definitely some ick factor involved. As for me personally, normal leeches creep me out, as I'm sure they do most everyone else. So having giant ones with teeth and a bloodlust that seemingly can't be sated adds brings the shudder inducing, creepiness that all good horror stories can benefit from.
I would definitely class this as a horror story. There is swearing, gore, violence, hate, revenge, and redemption involved, it's a gritty telling of a young man who feels like the world has finally given up on him, as he tries to come to terms with the guilt that he feels about basically his whole life. Enter Dakota, the little sister to the guy that Tyler was convicted of killing, and we have a whole other dimension to the story. We get to see if from her view which I really enjoyed. She's gone off the rails since her big brother was taken from her, and the only thing she's been able to focus on the past six years is revenge. She wants to make her brother's killer pay for what he did, for everything that happened because he took her brother from her, he took her protector away and now her life has gone down one massive fucked up slope of anger, hurt, rage and despair. She blames Tyler for all of this. But when she is faced with the possibility that he wasn't responsible for what happened, he whole life is turned on her axis as everything she thought she knew could be a lie.
I enjoyed the characters. We had got to have a look into a view different kinds of people, the rage filled little sister, the man responsible for her downward spiral of life after killing her brother, the frat boys who just want to party and chase tail, the married couple where the love seems one sided these days, and the park ranger who is just going about his job and wants to help people. I found the characters well rounded and each of them was necessary, there was no character added just as extra padding to the cast list, so to speak.
One thing that did irk me a little with this story was the constant dropping of comparisons in the writing. They felt forced and as though they were added to bolster the word count, which I honestly don't believe is true, that's just how it felt to me. Each time I came across an unnecessary comparison sentence, it kind of jolted me out of the story a bit. I don't know why they irritated me so much, I honestly believe it was just that they seemed unnecessary to me. One example is something along the lines of "Mark is splattered with blood, the blotches remind him of those arsehole painters who get paid millions for just throwing paint on a canvas" that is not a direct quote as I can't remember it exactly, and I know it'll take me ages to find it in the book again. But this is just an example of the kind of comparisons. There were a lot of them. I don't mind the author dropping them in order to give the reader a good idea on how the character was feeling, but I just felt that there were too many pushed into the story, and that they felt forced, as I said earlier.
All in all, this was a good story, I did enjoy it and it was fast paced. I didn't see the revelation coming near the end and I thought it was brilliant, and it actually made me go "Oh wow. Okay." I'd still like to know where the hell those creatures came from, but maybe it's more unsettling NOT knowing.